Author: Barbara Kingsolver
Year published: 2026
Category: Adult fiction
Pages: 352
Rating: 4 out of 5
Location: (my 2026 Google Reading map): USA (IN, TN)
Summary: Livia Cable has made her peace with her marriage and modest livelihood in the farm country where she grew up, until a shocking phone call from an old lover shakes her to the core. Decades earlier, this man knew her as Livia Bohusz, a music conservatory student estranged from her home and family, uncertain of anything except her passion for music and promise as an extraordinary pianist. His request, now, to see her again stirs up ghosts she’s kept at bay for a lifetime.
Shifting between past and present, Livia’s decision to meet or reject the reunion means confronting step by step, in memories framed as musical dances, the experiences of childhood loss, abandonment, self-immolating passion, and perilous attachment to a man who broke her belief in love and ruptured the course of her life.
Review: I read Kingsolver's earlier books and loved them (Pigs in Heaven, Animal Dreams [link to my review], Bean Trees), and I read Prodigal Summer, which I also super enjoyed. I haven't read her more recent works, and I think it's because Poisonwood Bible didn't work for me. My book group chose this one, and I was hoping that it would bring me back into the Kingsolver fold, which it did.
On the surface, this is Livia analyzing her life, figuring out how she got where she is now, and what she could have been/had. Below the surface, it's about family, love, expectations, friendship, and how we get what we really want out of life. And do we really know what we want versus what we end up with? Sometimes, our dreams surpass our reality (not for lack of talent or smarts), and accepting where we end up is healthy and really good.
The first half of this book is a bit slow, but it picks up halfway through. The preludes (chapters) alternate between Livia today and Livia back in college. They move forward in time until they meet in the present. Halfway through, Kingsolver brings the pieces together and has the drama/trauma of the story unfold. I did get frustrated with Livia, who seemed to allow life to happen to her instead of being an active participant in her decisions and actions. Maybe that's a comment on how she was raised and the life she came from.
A plug for the audiobook: the narrator is good, and between each prelude, there is beautiful piano music, which matches the pieces played by Livia. In fact at the end, we get to hear the piece that haunts her through out the novel.
Challenges for which this counts:
- Literary Escapes--Indiana
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